California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger drives his Humvee from the state Capitol to a signature gathering event at a Sacramento area restaurant on Tuesday, March 1, 2005. With him were signature gatherers who had petitions for initiative that the governor would like to place in the ballot in a future election.
Sacramento Bee/ John Decker less

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger drives his Humvee from the state Capitol to a signature gathering event at a Sacramento area restaurant on Tuesday, March 1, 2005. With him were signature gatherers who ... more

Photo: John Decker

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Results can pale next to splashy pledges / But governor's bold pronouncements have had influence

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2005-06-27 04:00:00 PDT Sacramento -- Draped in a colorful tribal blanket and speaking in an ornate Sacramento auditorium, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced deals with five California casino-owning Indian tribes last summer that he said would bring the state $150 million to $200 million annually.

It was a triumphant moment for the image-conscious governor, who portrayed the new pacts as a campaign promise kept and one more step toward plugging the state's budget deficit.

This month, however, administration officials acknowledged that the state's take has been far less than advertised -- about $18 million, or only 9 to 12 percent of what had been projected. The higher numbers the governor touted were based on assumptions that turned out to be way off target.

For Schwarzenegger, platforms and pledges are splashy and bold, but reality doesn't always match the rhetoric. Schwarzenegger has often announced lofty goals only to dramatically scale back or abandon agendas.

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The governor's "Year of Reform," to be capped with a special election in November, already has been narrowed as the governor dropped one plank of his policy platform and revised another.

But even in failure, the governor's use of the bully pulpit -- often punctuated in public appearances with Hollywood spectacle -- dominates the debate in the Capitol and has sparked action. Schwarzenegger in January promised to curb spiraling public pension costs, held a February event featuring bags of money flowing out of a Brinks armored security truck, and then abandoned the proposed ballot initiative in April amid heavy criticism.

Democratic lawmakers, however, have introduced half a dozen bills this year aimed at pension overhaul.

As a candidate and as governor, Schwarzenegger has been the king of political bravado -- he did, after all, promise "to make sure that everyone in California has a fantastic job," before winning the 2003 recall election.

Those who have studied Schwarzenegger's remarkable life say the governor is simply using the marketing skills that have served him well in his past incarnations as a bodybuilder and movie star.

"To Arnold, truth is a balloon that needs to be blown up to be seen," said Laurence Leamer, author of the new biography of the governor, "Fantastic: The Life of Arnold Schwarzenegger."

"Bodybuilding is all about exaggeration," Leamer noted.

Exaggeration is a time-honored political tactic. Every governor has a long to-do list with plenty of items that are never checked off or are watered down through negotiation and compromise.

But exaggeration is ingrained in the Schwarzenegger persona and has played a large role in his governorship.

Supporters say Schwarzenegger's penchant to think -- and speak -- big is important, regardless of the fact that the results don't always match.

"If the governor didn't set a bold agenda, we could get everything done overnight," said Terry Tamminen, Schwarzenegger's Cabinet secretary. "But that wasn't the point of his being elected."

Even Democrats who say Schwarzenegger's special election this November (estimated to cost $45 million) is a bad idea, admit the governor has forced them to re-evaluate long-held positions.

"You use the opportunity of somebody trying to shake the earth beneath you to see if you can make something good of it," said Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez. "I think that's what we're looking at -- can we use this ridiculously irresponsible expenditure of taxpayer dollars ... for something constructive?"

Núñez has accepted Schwarzenegger's premise that lawmakers should not be allowed to create their own voting districts, although they disagree on when redistricting should occur.

Schwarzenegger called for reforming a key environmental regulation to allow for more housing, and while he has failed to introduce legislation yet, a group of environmentalists, developers and administration officials has been meeting regularly to try to hammer out a compromise.

But critics say the governor's overly optimistic rhetoric and desire to make a splash have led to the kind of broken promises and unreliable numbers that permanently damage a politician's credibility.

"The theme in this administration in regard to their (policy) rollouts is, 'It's true because I told you it's true,' " said Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter (Kern County), chairman of the Senate Government Organization Committee, which deals with issues like Indian gaming. "We look at the numbers they put out very suspiciously."

Consider some of Schwarzenegger's bolder proposals, and the outcomes so far:

-- Candidate Schwarzenegger, touting his environmentally friendly agenda, wanted to equip half of all new homes built in California with solar power by this year. Instead the governor is sponsoring legislation that calls for 1 million homes and buildings to be powered by the sun -- by 2018.

-- Saying he wanted to take the influence of money out of governing, Schwarzenegger proposed that politicians, himself included, not be able to raise campaign contributions while the state budget is being crafted and voted on. But he has put little of his clout into pushing for legislation to impose fund-raising blackout periods, and he has been a torrid fund-raiser, collecting more than $42 million since winning election.

-- Schwarzenegger made public last summer the 2,500-page California Performance Review, which he said would reinvent government and save taxpayers billions. But most of the proposals to redo state agencies have not been enacted, and one money-saving idea that has -- the state hired a private company to help increase efficiencies in purchasing goods for state departments -- has only saved $4.9 million, not the $96 million it promised.

Schwarzenegger also has made promises that Sacramento interests say he has broken. During last year's budget negotiations, he appeared to make promises to both legislative Democrats and local government officials that were at odds. And environmentalists are upset that he seemed to back off a promise that he would not endorse a ballot initiative last fall that revoked the part of a law that environmental groups used to sue businesses.

"It will be difficult for the education community to ever trust him again, " said Kevin Gordon, a lobbyist who represents school boards and other school interests.

Schwarzenegger has denied that he reneged on the promise, but ads run against him by the teachers union appear to have hurt the governor's popularity.

Polls in the last two months have shown a steep drop in the governor's approval rating, something biographer Leamer said shows that Schwarzenegger's knack for bravado may not play as well in politics as it did at the box office.

"Voters seem to have had their Wizard of Oz moment with Schwarzenegger, where they see that there's not as much behind the curtain as they thought," he said.

Leamer suggests Schwarzenegger should rely less on theatrics, catchy sound bites and casting Democrats or unions in the villain role and spend more time on honest talk about the state's problems. But he also notes that Schwarzenegger will have a hard time shaking his habit for overstatement.

The governor has never denied his love for spectacle. Speaking to California reporters while on a trade mission to Japan last year, he noted that "doing something outrageous" was the key to getting attention for ideas. He spoke a day before he held a rally in a swank Tokyo shopping district that featured a stunt man on a motorcycle.

Pledges and results

Schwarzenegger has made bold promises that have often been scaled back or abandoned:

Federal funding: The governor declared that he would be known as the "Collectinator" for securing more federal funds for California, saying there is "more than $50 billion they are not giving us." Schwarzenegger administration officials say they have won about $1 billion from the feds.

Tribal casinos: While campaigning for governor, he said Indian tribes operating casinos owed the state about $2 billion and pledged to make the tribes pay their fair share. After signing compacts with five tribes, he said the deals would bring the state $150 million to $200 million. Administration officials say the compacts have actually generated about $18 million.

Prison reform: The governor has pushed to reorganize the state prison system to put new emphasis on rehabilitating inmates. The system will change its name to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation on Friday, but Schwarzenegger has proposed cutting more than $40 million from inmate rehabilitative programs.

Deficit spending: As a candidate, he blasted budgets signed by former Gov. Gray Davis, saying the state must "end the crazy deficit spending" and "ensure that California government lives within its means." The governor asked voters last year to support a bond measure that would borrow money to pay off debt.